Skin
by Enray
Summary: Response to DigitalPhantom's challenge "Burmese Python". A ghost snake slithers towards the place she died on a full moon. Why?


This is a response to the challenge "Burmese Python" by DigitalPhantom. Hope you like it.

* * *

Was he there?

A tongue flickered out to taste the air.

No. She could taste many smells in the air, but not _his_ smell.

The ghost snake slithered silently towards the park, her destination. Hopefully, she would reach it in time, and not be interrupted like the past few months. Her body slithered over the damp ground.

She passed by a small puddle. Her red eyes caught sight her reflection in the flat surface. Green skin, scarlet eyes. The snake that met her eyes was herself.

She brought up her tail and slammed it hard on the puddle, sending water droplets flying everywhere and successfully destroying the snake in the puddle. That was not her. She wasn't this ugly!

The snake continued her journey. She did not want to be caught before she reached the place. If she got caught now, she wouldn't know when she could escape again. She didn't want the sight of that ugly snake stuck in her head until the next time.

The snake stopped. A tongue flickered out to taste the air. She couldn't taste any foreign smells. Good, that meant that she was still alone.

She slithered over the damp grass towards the long stretch of solid grey river that cut off the grass from where she was to her destination. The grey river was always full of noisy metal monsters. She remembered a cat that got squashed by it once. After that incident, she always made sure that the solid river was empty before she crossed it.

The night was silent, the neighbourhood looked asleep. Under the moonlight, she managed to slither across the road towards the park undisturbed. She never strayed from her path. This was the way she had taken ever since she found out. She didn't even need her senses to make her way there any longer.

A patch of earth, nothing special about it to everyone except her. That patch of unremarkable earth, was the place she died. There was where she was killed. There was where she was heading to.

The moonlight touched her scales. For a fleeting moment, she thought that the awful green colour of her scales shifted, but it was just wishful thinking. It would only happen when she was on the ground she died.

She slithered forward and coiled her body. When the moonlight touched her scales, she lifted her head in anticipation.

Standing on the ground she died under the full moon, her ugly green scales faded, replaced by her real skin, the one she wore before she died, the beautiful pale brown scales that accented the dark patches on her six feet long body. This was the true her. She was a Burmese Python, not a ghost snake.

She coiled her body, making sure not to leave anything unprotected. Her forked tongue flickered as she looked at herself. _This_ was the skin that every other snake envied. _This_ was the skin that even the humans coveted. _This_ was the skin that killed her.

The snake hissed in anger. It's all because of those filthy humans. Not contented with wearing their own skin, they hunt and kill to wear the skin of other animals. They look ridiculous wearing other skins on their own.

She rubbed her head affectionately against her skin. How humans think would always be a mystery to her, but she didn't want them to ruin this night. It was hard for her to escape to the Human World, it was harder to time it right for the full moon, and with the halfa around, it was harder still to stay out of the Ghost Zone.

Red eyes widened as green scales started to replace her skin. Dark brown patches faded away, pale brown started to glow. She quickly looked up, only to find a huge man made object blocking the moon. Soon, she had taken on the appearance of a ghost snake.

She lifted her head in anger, hissing as her forked tongue flickered in the air. Even after taking away her physical skin and her life, the filthy humans still managed to take away her skin. Why couldn't they leave her alone? Why do they still torment her?

An ectoblast hit her, sending pain rippling across her body. She turned towards the attacker with rage-filled eyes. It was the halfa. One half of him was a filthy human, the other half was a detestable ghost that made her skin hideous green. Combined, he was a hated attacker that always made her miss the full moon.

She attacked. She hated humans, she hated ghosts, she hated the mix that always hurt her.

She hated everyone who took away her skin.

* * *

A lot more angsty than what I would usually write, but she _is_ dead. And when you look at it from her point of view, everyone that has human features had hurt her one way or another. Twisted but, hey, she's still an animal, albeit a more intelligent one.

Why am I rambling about this?

Reviews would be really appreciated.

Thanks for reading.


End file.
